Internet Slams Man for Secretly Putting Tracking App in Fiancée's Phone

A post has gone viral on Reddit after a woman shared what she caught her boyfriend and brother planting on her future sister-in-law's phone.

Redditor u/tellornottell3 wrote about the situation in a post to the subreddit "Am I The A**Hole" which has now received over 13,000 votes.

She explained that her brother purchased a phone to gift his fiancée for Valentine's day and asked the Redditor's boyfriend to install a "hidden tracking app" on the phone.

"I overheard them talking and when I entered the room they went silent,
she wrote. "I waited til my brother left then talked to my boyfriend, he denied having this conversation with my brother first then, admitted to installing the app on the phone."

She said after confronting her boyfriend, who told her to stay out of it, she is considering telling her brother's fiancée.

In 2020, CNET reported about the "legal gray area" that allows certain software, like the one described in the post, "flourish."

CNET references "Loverspy," a program written by Carlos Enrique Perez-Melara who was placed on the FBI's Most Wanted List in 2013. The program would come to a user's email presenting as an e-card and once opened would "secretly intercept their partners' emails, turn on their webcams and read chat conversations."

These kinds of apps and programs are known as "stalkerware" or "spyware," according to CNET. Though it is "illegal to sell apps that exist primarily to secretly spy on adults, the laws governing these sales are narrowly tailored and let many app makers operate legally."

The Redditor said she told her boyfriend they were in the wrong for installing the software as it was a "huge breach of privacy."

"[H]e said he has nothing to do with it and advised me to stay out of it as well. [B]ut I said I want to tell my brother's fiancèe," she wrote. "[M]y boyfriend argued with me about being nosy and intrusive and told me to stay out of it and let them deal with their own issues."

Commenters slammed both men for their part in installing the software saying the Redditor should certainly give her future sister-in-law a heads up. Some say if she doesn't, she would be the "AH."

"The fact that he helped another man stalk his fiancé is a gd deal breaker," one commenter wrote.

"The irony of him calling her intrusive when he's putting a tracker on someone else's phone is just too much," said another.

The post goes on to explain that her boyfriend continued to shut down her concerns telling her to "gtfo with this attitude."

"I don't know I feel horrible after hearing about what my brother did and since I have a good relationship with his fiancee I can't help but feel guilty and wanting to tell her," she wrote.

"NTA if you tell the fiancee[sic]," one commenter wrote. "YTA if you don't tell her..."

Newsweek contacted u/tellornottell3 for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.